Dec 3, 2007 1:59 pm US/Central
Fully Remodeled Green House Gets Final Walkthrough
(WCCO)
In a Project Energy series, Don Shelby has been following the "greenification" of a 1940s style rambler in Minnetonka, watching as it has been remodeled to be one of the most energy-efficient home in America. What follows are excerpts from his chat with Live Green, Live Smart representatives while performing a post-remodel walkthrough.
DON SHELBY: It's hard to believe this house was built in 1948, but it's not the changes on the outside I'm so interested in. I want to see how energy efficient this thing is.
[To Peter Lytle, of Live Green, Live Smart.] Tell me about this place.
PETER LYTLE: Well there's just a lot of technologies in this home. We had 250 people and seven teams, and during that we figured out everything we could think of to make this more energy efficient, more sustainable. ... As you walk into our bathrooms you'll find the toilets are dual flush which help to save water. We have faucets if you put your hands under they'll go on and off. The difference is our faucets are designed so that there's a battery that gets recharged as the water flows up and out of each faucet. ... So we're even saving energy by creating energy.
SHELBY: This is a really nice size refrigerator. Does it eat a lot of electricity?
LYTLE: All of our appliances are energy star, and what we did behind this -- and most people don't think about this -- we put a vent behind this so that any heat that is produced by a refrigerator is captured in our vents and it goes into our air exchange system, and we're reusing that heat. ... It's kind of like a geothermal system.
SHELBY: You have geothermal here?
LYTLE: It's downstairs.
Shelby sought out the expertise of Jim Cusack of UMR Geothermal.SHELBY: Tell me about geothermal heat pumps.
JIM CUSACK: We use a refrigeration system to remove the heat from the ground and deliver it to the house.
SHELBY: What kind of savings would something like the geothermal heat pump give the average consumer?
CUSACK: Fifty to 80 percent savings on your heating bill.
SHELBY: Why doesn't everybody do this?
CUSACK: Good question.
Shelby rejoined Lytle to wrap his tour.SHELBY: Peter, you have a beautiful house. Congratulations on all you've done here. It's just great. We're going to head on out and see what else we can find for Project Energy. ... Wait a minute, I have got to ask you this question.
LYTLE: It's the money question isn't it?
SHELBY: $1-plus million on a 1948 house. Why did you (spend) so much money on this?
LYTLE: This is a laboratory home and the first of anything tends to cost more -- whether it's a hybrid car, whether it's a wind turbine, whether it's a biogeneration facility somewhere. Those first units always cost more. We know we could do this same home now probably for a third of the price that we have in this one.
The Lytles are now currently living in the green house.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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